


Invested

by shinysylver



Series: Fic a Day in May [29]
Category: Shameless (US)
Genre: Brother-Sister Relationships, Established Relationship, Kissing, M/M, Mistletoe
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-05-30
Updated: 2014-05-30
Packaged: 2018-01-27 14:33:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,092
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1714103
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shinysylver/pseuds/shinysylver
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Holly tells Debbie that kissing is an important part of maintaining relationships and Debbie starts to worry because she's never seen Ian and Mickey kiss. </p><p>Then she takes matters into her own hands.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Invested

**Author's Note:**

> Please be aware that this fic contains language and attitudes that are canonical, but potentially offensive.

Holly leaned in close to the mirror and carefully drew on her eyeliner in a thick line. Debbie wished that she could do that, but she was always afraid that she'd poke her eye out. 

"Does he at least kiss you?" Holly asked.

Debbie had apparently been paying too much attention to the eyeliner and not enough to the conversation. "What?" 

Holly put down the eyeliner and gave Debbie a long look. "Please tell me Matty at least kisses you."

Debbie shrugged. "Not really."

Holly shook her head. "Kissing is important. It proves he's interested."

"Oh." Debbie nodded. "Right."

**

Debbie watched Ian and Mickey all afternoon. They didn't kiss once. In fact, when she thought about it she realized that she'd never seen them kiss. That had to be a bad sign, right? She'd walked in on Fiona and Jimmy kissing more than once just this week and Lip and Amanda had made out on the couch the last time they'd visited. 

If Holly was right—and after she'd been _so_ wrong about Matty, Debbie was starting to second guess her advice—then Mickey and Ian's relationship might be in trouble already. If she wanted Mandy as a sister she couldn't let that happen.

Whether Holly was right or not, it couldn't hurt to get them to kiss—just to be safe.

**

"Stop!" Debbie yelled when Mickey and Ian walked into the kitchen.

"What?" Ian asked. He looked around trying to see what had Debbie so upset. "What is it, Debs?"

Debbie pointed above him and he looked up. 

"What the fuck is that?" Mickey asked. 

"Mistletoe." Ian recognized the fake mistletoe that they'd been hanging up every Christmas for as long as he could remember. "Debbie, why is there mistletoe in May?"

Debbie shrugged, her eyes darting between Ian and Mickey. "Are you going to kiss?"

Ian glanced at Mickey and knew that there wouldn't be any kissing. His body language was screaming "no" with his arms crossed over his chest and an angry scowl aimed somewhere over Debbie's shoulder. It was a good thing that Debbie was the only person here. Mickey was already uncomfortable enough without having to deal with Lip's smart mouth or Carl's never ending questions.

Ian stretched up and grabbed the fake plant. He handed it to Debbie who looked like she was about to cry. "What's this about, Debs?"

"Nothing." She threw the mistletoe against the wall and stomped up the stairs.

"Why the fuck did she want us to kiss?" Mickey asked. He dropped his arms and started to relax now that their audience was gone. "Is that her idea of a fucking joke?"

Of course Mickey assumed that the mistletoe had some sort of cruel intent behind it, but Ian didn't believe that Debbie would purposely try to embarrass or hurt them. "I don't think so. I should go talk to her."

Ian jogged up the steps and knocked on Debbie's door.

"Go away!" Debbie yelled.

"Not until we talk." Ian tried the door knob, but it was locked. "Let me in, Debs."

The door swung open and Debbie flopped back dramatically onto her bed. Ian couldn't remember ever being that dramatic when he was her age, but Lip had had his moments. 

"I'm sorry," Debbie said before Ian could say anything.

"Why?" Ian asked. "Compared to some of the pranks Carl's pulled, mistletoe isn't that big a deal."

Debbie sat up and stared at him. "Then why didn't you kiss."

"You can't just make people kiss on demand. Mistletoe isn't magic." Ian sighed and sat down next to her on the bed. "Why did you want us to?"

"You never kiss," Debbie explained. She dropped her eyes and fiddled with the edge of her blanket. "Holly says that kissing is important. I don't want you and Mickey to break up."

Ian wrapped one arm around her shoulders and pulled her into a hug. He hadn't realized that his sister was so invested in his relationship with Mickey, but it made him happy to know that someone in his family was. "Debbie, Mickey and I do kiss."

"I've never seen you." Debbie pulled away and sat cross-legged on the bed, facing him. "I've walked in on Fiona and Lip kissing people all the time."

"And did that make their relationships last?" Ian asked. 

Debbie shook her head. "Their relationships never last."

"Kissing doesn't fix everything."

"So Holly was wrong?" Debbie asked.

"No. Kissing _is_ important, but not everyone wants to do it all the time," Ian explained. After suffering without for so long, Ian would be the last person to ever deny the importance of kissing. "And some people aren't comfortable kissing in front of other people."

"Is it because you're gay?" Debbie asked. 

"It's part of it," Ian admitted. The last thing he wanted to talk about with his thirteen year old sister was the homophobia rampant in their neighborhood and why that made them less affectionate in public. He was glad that she didn't seem to see any difference between his relationship with Mickey and Fiona and Lip's heterosexual relationships and he didn't want that to change. "Mickey's not been out of the closet for very long so he's not used to PDA. But Debbie, it's mostly just a people thing. Different people like different things."

"And Mickey likes to be private?" 

"Yes." Ian didn't want to discuss Mickey's legion of intimacy issues with his sister either, so he hoped she'd take the simple answer. 

"So you aren't going to break up anytime soon?"

"I hope not," Ian answered. "Nothing's been able to keep us apart yet."

Debbie hugged him, a huge smile on her face. "Good. I'd really hate it if I had to stop hanging out with Mandy. It was hard enough when Lip broke up with her."

"Oh…right." Apparently Debbie wasn't that invested in his relationship after all—at least not as far as it related to him. "Mandy's great."

Ian left Debbie's room and found Mickey leaning against the wall just outside. He'd obviously heard the whole conversation because his shoulders were shaking with barely contained laughter. "It's not funny."

"Mandy's great," Mickey repeated in a mocking tone. He shook his head. "You should have seen your face."

"Shut up or I'll kiss you in front of everyone at dinner tonight."

Mickey grabbed Ian's shirt and pulled him into a kiss right in front of Debbie's still open door. He let it linger for a moment before pushing Ian back. "One family member at a time."

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading! Comments and kudos are much appreciated.
> 
> You can find me on Tumblr at [shinysylver](http://shinysylver.tumblr.com/)!


End file.
